ISS Security Advisory - A buffer overflow has been discovered in IRIX rpc.espd, which is installed by default on all current SGI IRIX installations. Remote attackers without accounts can execute commands as root. Patch available here.

NAI Security Advisory - Multiple FTP server implementations contain buffer overflows that allow local and remote attackers to gain root privileges on affected servers. These vulnerabilities are contingent upon the remote user having the ability to create directories on the server hosting the FTP daemon, with the exception of a few cases noted below. The vulnerabilities presented are all related to the use of the glob() function, and can be divided into the following two categories - glob() expansion vulnerabilities and glob() implementation vulnerabilities. Vulnerable FTP servers include OpenBSD, NetBSD, FreeBSD, Irix, HPUX 11, and Solaris 8.

CERT Quarterly Summary for November, 2000 - Since the last regularly scheduled CERT summary, issued in August (CS-2000-03), we have seen continued compromises via rpc.statd and FTPd. We have also seen a number of sites compromised by exploiting a vulnerability in the IRIX telnet daemon. Notable virus activity includes the Loveletter.as worm and the QAZ worm.

A serious vulnerability has been found in IRIX telnetd which can give remote root access to any IRIX 6.2-6.5.8[m,f] system. The vulnerability occurrs when one of the environment variables contains a format string which is passed on to the syslog() function. Proof of concept exploit included (updated version - compiler and little endian fixes). Fix available here.